Venus Twin

Astronomers have found a new Venus like exoplanet 39 light years away from earth that might be cool enough to harbour an atmosphere. They are of the view that if the planet hosts an atmosphere then a close study could be carried out with the help of Hubble Space Telescope and future observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope.

The planet known as GJ 1132b orbits a red dwarf star which is one fifth the size of sun. The star is comparatively cooler and emits just 1/200^th as much light. The planet circles the star every 1.6 days covering a distance of 1.4 million miles. This bakes the planet to a temperature of about 232° C. Astronomers stated that such a temperature would boil off any water that GJ1132b once had. However, that temperature still allows the planet to harbour an atmosphere, astronomers said.

The rocky planet was discovered by MEarth-South array that is dedicated towards searching terrestrial worlds orbiting red dwarf stars. Astronomers said GJ 1132b is much cooler than any other rocky exoplanet.